shareholders their hodmen. The small shareholder often lives in another town from that in which the enterprise is centred, and cannot travel a hundred miles or more to attend a shareholders’ meeting. Even when some of the ordinary shareholders turn up at the meeting, they are unorganised, and merely jostle one another like blind puppies. But the big shareholders are organised. They have a common plan; they can do what they please. Experience has shown that it suffices the great capitalist to own one-third of all the shares, for this gives him absolute control of the whole undertaking
But the development of the concentration and centralisation of capital was to advance still further. During the last few decades the place of individual enterprises and individual shareholding companies has largely been taken by great capitalist combines known as syndicates, cartels, and trusts. Why have these been formed? What is their significance?
Let us suppose that in a certain branch of production, textiles or engineering, for